A question about near-death experiences?

You are quite right. The important word in 'near death experience' is 'near' - clearly the person's brain was still working well enough to be able to store the memory of the experience and recall it later. We can also know that the individual's brain had not died when they have no brain damage on being resuscitated. Near death experiences are oxygen-deprived hallucinations. If we need any more evidence of this being conjured by the person's own mind, we can see that no-one ever saw a god or version of heaven that they had not previously believed in or been culturally familiar with. Michael Shermer has an interesting chapter on this in his The Believing Brain.

Dream on! Your post almost illustrates why - because people like yourself have a deep desire for it to be true and when you see the conclusion of the scientific research you will understand the psychological/psychiatric implications of that!

NDE stands for Near Death Experience and thereby lies the clue! No death just fantasy!

Research has been done in a number of hospitals in a number of countries with the same results.

Numbers, pictures of codes were placed on top of high points in the wards. In some hospitals patients were told in others they were not.

In the hospitals where people were told of the test there were no claims! Not even one!

In the other hospitals there were claims but no one could describe the numbers, pictures etc.

Then even more interesting it was found that all the claimants had recorded their religion as Christian!

'Near death experiences' are all caused by lack of oxygen to the brain, which can result in any number of hallucinations, etc. as the brain starts to starve and shut down.

A religious person (or even someone who is raised religious, rejects it later, but is still worried about 'what if?') will 'experience' exactly what they expect to experience.

Your last statement is correct - they only exist in the confines of the mind.

There can be hallucinations at times but Heaven and Hell are very real places. Some people have been given real vivid visions of heaven and/or hell or experienced one of them in near death experiences. These three videos show examples. The last link is a test you can do to see where you are currently headed.

Source(s)

Bill Wiese: Vision of Hell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0lOxNHzTDU

Dean Braxton: visit to heaven http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGQPQ2EJVyY

Ian McCormack: A look at Eternity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4lgvZ5MCZ4

How to know if you are on your way to heaven or hell http://www.needgod.com/

I used to think that 'near death experiences' had some value until my nitrous oxide period in the mid-90s. Then it became far more plausible to believe that our brains go into a different state as we're shutting down.

I think NDEs should be called "near death hallucinations". Much more fitting.